Dilfer Claims Reid “Really Likes (49ers QB) Alex” Smith

ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer said new Chiefs coach Andy Reid, then with the Eagles, expressed interest in acquiring 49ers QB Alex Smith when he was a free agent after the 2011 season. According to Dilfer, Reid “really likes Alex,” Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle.

“There was a courtship last year, to a certain degree,” Dilfer said.

Asked for specifics of Philadelphia’s dalliance with Smith, he said, “I don’t know a whole lot. I just know there was a courtship. It was not even an inside source, you know what I mean? It was just kind of the scuttle in the offseason.”

Dilfer and Smith are close friends who were teammates in San Francisco from 2006-07.

Smith, who took his only reported free-agent trip to Miami before re-signing with San Francisco in March, is expected to leave the 49ers after the season. Colin Kaepernick supplanted him as the starter in November and his $7.5 million contract for 2013 will become fully guaranteed if he’s still on the roster April 1.